


An Alternative to Confrontation

by thelilnan



Category: Catfish: The TV Show
Genre: First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 02:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1802707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilnan/pseuds/thelilnan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nev is angry and Max needs to calm him down.</p>
<p>Set during/after S03E02: Antwane and Tony. Spoilers for who that Catfish turns out to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Alternative to Confrontation

Nev stormed into the shared Cincinnati hotel room like the room had personally offended him. The door slammed against the wall adjacent as Nev shoved his way through, leaving Max to catch the ricocheting door and tell their crew to give them some space. He’d never seen Nev so enraged; of course, anger was a rare phenomenon with the hopelessly romantic MTV host. However, the one thing that was sure to fire him up, without fail, was betrayal of loved ones.

They’d seen more than enough of fucked up relationships getting thrown into the public eye through one or more vindictive people’s actions, but when someone so close to the Catfishee could just throw everything away for “revenge?” Nev couldn’t stand it. Max agreed, obviously, that Carmen had fucked up priorities and barely deserved their time if she wouldn’t apologize to Antwane for lying to him for three years. Despite this, Max knew one of them had to remain somewhat rational; aimless anger doesn’t accomplish anything.

“Nev, come on,” Max turned off his miniature hand-held and set it aside, “You gotta calm down.”

“I don’t want to! I kind of want to kick her ass!”

Max snorted, “Okay, be realistic.”

“I know,” Nev huffed, running both hands through his short hair, then down over his stubbled face, “But I can’t get over it. She’s his cousin! And she did this for _three years_?? Because he called her a ‘fat Kelly Price?’ It... It just...!”

He then made several unintelligible noises and paced the room. Max watched him, sat on the end of his double bed, until Nev calmed down and stood in front of him.

“How do people not care??”

Max grinned and shook his head, “I dunno, man. It’s messed up.”

“It’s _fucked_ up!” Nev corrected emphatically, about to launch into another rant. Max stood, grabbing his friend’s face and forcing him to meet his eye.

“Nev, buddy, calm down.”

“No, it’s just—” he tried to turn his head away, to make another point for how evil Carmen was, but Max curtailed the rambling by simply kissing Nev. ‘Simply.’ As if this was normal, or something they did, or not a friendship-ruining mistake. But he kissed him and Nev was quiet.

They parted and Nev was still quiet.

“We’ll deal with her later, okay?”

“... Okay.”

And he was still holding Nev’s face. Still standing too close, still remembering the soft and unsure way Nev returned his kiss. Max pushed forward again to recapture that endearing sweetness and Nev fell into it, hands pulling at the labels of Max’s winter jacket. The kiss was still careful on both sides, neither man quite sure how far to take it, but then Nev stepped into Max’s bubble and everything felt hyperreal. Max huffed breathlessly and tried opening his mouth against Nev’s. Nev responded the same and Max hesitantly pushed his tongue into his best friend’s mouth. They soon toppled over onto the bed and held onto each other while slowly but enthusiastically making out.

It wasn’t too long until their crew knocked on their door and they had to part, and did. Nev left one more kiss on Max’s lips, a bookmark for later. Max grinned and stood, same as Nev, smoothing down his clothes and making sure they were ready to meet their co-workers. Their mouths were plump and red from the kisses but beyond that, nothing was out of place, except maybe for the excited glint in Nev’s eye that replaced the furious anger from before. Max grinned to himself as they answered the door and were ushered out to have dinner with the crew. Unbeknownst to them, the people who tracked Nev and Max’s every move, the two held hands throughout the meal. Nev found it was a much better way to calm down than beating someone up (as if that’d been a reality for him.)

Still, squeezing onto Max’s hand beneath the restaurant table, Nev felt the same thrill.

 

End.

 


End file.
